


Those Days

by schakatze



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 11:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16325729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schakatze/pseuds/schakatze
Summary: Most days are okay. Most days Neil finds himself just fine. But then there are those days, the days when all the darkness and nightmares crawl back up to the surface. Those days, that Neil would never trade for anything else in the world.





	Those Days

**Author's Note:**

> Unedited, written after a 10 hour work shift with 3 hours of sleep.

It would be a lie to say that everything was a-okay.

A new year meant a new team. A new team meant new issues and puzzle pieces to fit. New puzzle pieces with a bucketload of issues of their own meant more posturing, which lead to more fights, that generally culminated with Neil wishing that he had chosen to flee instead of stay. On the plus side of things, at least the new guys had learned fast that one Andrew Joseph Minyard was not one to fuck around with. Or anyone he considered "his" for that matter.

And all it took was for one first year to nearly get choked to death after calling Neil "faggot" (Among other things, but primarily that).

Granted Wymack would rather no violence happen but given the type of players he tended to scout, the fact that it only required one choke session, and not more was something Neil was willing to take.

There was, admittedly, the ever-looming pressure of having the eyes of Ichirou Moriyama constantly watching. Watching for that one moment when any one of them screwed up, to take them out of the game. Permanently. And sometimes, there would be days when that pressure was too much to take, too heavy a weight to bear. Those days Neil found it hard to breathe, much less find the strength to crawl out of bed to tackle a brand-new day of issues caused by a team where the word “dysfunctional” was a polite word to use.

It was those days that brought out not just his inner monologue that drew him down into an ever-descending spiral of negativity and self-depreciation. It was those days that Neil found himself excused from school and from practice, courtesy of Andrew of course. It was those days when Andrew would let the softer, nursing side of him show. From blanket cocoons on the couch to literally standing guard in front of Neil’s bedroom door with a foldable desk and chair in some sort of weird “secretary that would be happy to take a message but even happier to stab you in the gut if you don’t leave” sort of way.

It was those days that reminded Neil of one of the many reasons why he chose to stay. It was those days when he fell asleep on the couch, wrapped firmly in Andrew’s arms. The days that he felt so safe, so protected that not even Kevin’s obnoxiously loud bitching directly outside their dorm room door would wake him up.

It was because of those days that he knew precisely to spot when Andrew was going through the exact same downward spiral. It was because of those days that he perfected the art of waking Andrew up without getting taken down by one of his infamous punches. It was because of those days of showing Andrew that vulnerability that allowed Neil to stay by his side, that allowed Neil to prove to Andrew that he could be and would be a source of protection and strength.

It was because of those days that he could prove to Andrew that what he once called a “pipe dream”, was now a permanent reality.

Those days, that Neil would never trade for anything else in the world.


End file.
